Develop Reference

Select single node

From the following xml:
<response>
<content>
<Result xmlns="http://www.test.com/nav/webservices/types">
<Name>Test</Name>
</Result>
</content>
<status>ok</status>
</response>
I am trying to get the value of the Name element the following way but that does not work:
private static void Main()
{
var response = new XmlDocument();
response.Load("Response.xml");
var namespaceManager = new XmlNamespaceManager(response.NameTable);
namespaceManager.AddNamespace("ns", "http://www.test.com/nav/webservices/types");
Console.WriteLine(response.SelectSingleNode("/response/content/Result/Name", namespaceManager).InnerXml);
}
How can I select the Name element?

Your code would have worked just fineif the Xml had defined the namespace with a "ns:" prefix.
But in this case, the namespace is given without any prefix, which sets the default namespace for everything in the Result tag to ".../webservice/types".
To reflect this, you need to modify the Xpath, and tell the XmlDocument that the nodes you are looking for under Resultare in the webservice/types namespace. So your query will look like this:
Console.WriteLine(response.SelectSingleNode(#"/response/content/ns:Result/ns:Name", namespaceManager).InnerXml);

For getting directly the text value of a node there is a text() function, if used in the query it would look like:
/response/content/Result/Name/text()

Try this:
XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
xmlDoc.InnerXml = "<response><content><Result xmlns=\"http://www.test.com/nav/webservices/types\"><Name>Test</Name></Result></content><status>ok</status>";
string elementValue = String.Empty;
if (xmlDoc != null)
{
xNode = xmlDoc.SelectSingleNode("/Result");
xNodeList = xNode.ChildNodes;
foreach (XmlNode node in xNodeList)
{
elementValue = node.InnerText;
}
}

Adding info to a xml file

I have a XML file which contains about 850 XML nodes. Like this:
<NameValueItem>
<Text>Test</Text>
<Code>Test</Code>
</NameValueItem>
........ 849 more
And I want to add a new Childnode inside each and every Node. So I end up like this:
<NameValueItem>
<Text>Test</Text>
<Code>Test</Code>
<Description>TestDescription</Description>
</NameValueItem>
........ 849 more
I've tried the following:
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.Load(xmlPath);
XmlNodeList nodes = doc.GetElementsByTagName("NameValueItem");
Which gives me all of the nodes, but from here am stuck(guess I need to iterate over all of the nodes and append to each and every) Any examples?

You need something along the lines of this example below. On each of your nodes, you need to create a new element to add to it. I assume you will be getting different values for the InnerText property, but I just used your example.
foreach (var rootNode in nodes)
{
XmlElement element = doc.CreateElement("Description");
element.InnerText = "TestDescription";
root.AppendChild(element);
}

You should just be able to use a foreach loop over your XmlNodeList and insert the node into each XmlNode:
foreach(XmlNode node in nodes)
{
node.AppendChild(new XmlNode()
{
Name = "Description",
Value = [value to insert]
});
}
This can also be done with XDocument using LINQ to XML as such:
XDocument doc = XDocument.Load(xmlDoc);
var updated = doc.Elements("NameValueItem").Select(n => n.Add(new XElement() { Name = "Description", Value = [newvalue]}));
doc.ReplaceWith(updated);

If you don't want to parse XML using proper classes (i.e. XDocument), you can use Regex to find a place to insert your tag and insert it:
string s = #"<NameValueItem>
<Text>Test</Text>
<Code>Test</Code>
</NameValueItem>";
string newTag = "<Description>TestDescription</Description>";
string result = Regex.Replace(s, #"(?<=</Code>)", Environment.NewLine + newTag);
but the best solution is Linq2XML (it's much better, than simple XmlDocument, that is deprecated at now).
string s = #"<root>
<NameValueItem>
<Text>Test</Text>
<Code>Test</Code>
</NameValueItem>
<NameValueItem>
<Text>Test2</Text>
<Code>Test2</Code>
</NameValueItem>
</root>";
var doc = XDocument.Load(new StringReader(s));
var elms = doc.Descendants("NameValueItem");
foreach (var element in elms)
{
element.Add(new XElement("Description", "TestDescription"));
}
var text = new StringWriter();
doc.Save(text);
Console.WriteLine(text);

Best way to index, search and store information in C#

I'm writing an application which will need to index and store information about files fast. I'm currently using XML to store the information using this code:
XmlTextWriter xtw;
xtw = new XmlTextWriter(FilePath, Encoding.UTF8);
xtw.WriteStartDocument();
xtw.WriteStartElement("ApplicationIndex");
xtw.WriteEndElement();
xtw.Close();
XmlDocument xd = new XmlDocument();
FileStream lfile = new FileStream(FilePath, FileMode.Open);
xd.Load(lfile);
XmlElement cl = xd.CreateElement("Application");
cl.SetAttribute("Name", ApplicationName);
XmlElement na = xd.CreateElement("Path");
XmlText natext = xd.CreateTextNode(ApplicationPath);
na.AppendChild(natext);
cl.AppendChild(na);
XmlElement na1 = xd.CreateElement("UseCount");
XmlText natext1 = xd.CreateTextNode("0");
na1.AppendChild(natext1);
cl.AppendChild(na1);
XmlElement na2 = xd.CreateElement("SearchTerm");
XmlText natext2 = xd.CreateTextNode(ApplicationName.ToLower());
na2.AppendChild(natext2);
cl.AppendChild(na2);
xd.DocumentElement.AppendChild(cl);
lfile.Close();
xd.Save(FilePath);
This works fine for creating the file and storing the data, however I'm having trouble searching through the data quickly as there are several hundred nodes in the document. I've tried using Linq to XML to achieve this using this code:
listBox1.Items.Clear();
var doc = XDocument.Load(filePath);
foreach (var child in doc.Descendants("SearchTerm"))
{
if (child.Value.Contains(textBox1.Text.ToLower()))
{
listBox1.Items.Add(child.Value);
}
}
This is very fast however I can't seem to get any information about the selected node. For example I would like to sort the returned results based upon the UseCount (The higher the count the higher up the list). Is there anyway to do this in XML or any other technique to achieve this?
This is what the XML file looks like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ApplicationIndex>
<Application Name="Google Chrome">
<Path>C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Chrome.exe</Path>
<UseCount>0</UseCount>
<SearchTerm>google chrome</SearchTerm>
</Application>
<Application Name="Mozilla Firefox">
<Path>C:\Program Files\Mozilla\Firefox\Firefox.exe</Path>
<UseCount>0</UseCount>
<SearchTerm>mozilla firefox</SearchTerm>
</Application>
</ApplicationIndex>

You can Sort your elements by UseCount in descending order like this:
var doc = XDocument.Load(filePath);
var elements = doc.Descendants("Application")
.OrderByDescending(x => (int)x.Element("UseCount"));
In order to search a record by given SearchTerm you can do the following:
var element = doc.Descendants("Application")
.FirstOrDefault(x => (string)x.Element("SearchTerm") == value);
if(element != null)
{
// record found
}

Get certain xml node and save the value

Considering the following XML:
<Stations>
<Station>
<Code>HT</Code>
<Type>123</Type>
<Names>
<Short>H'bosch</Short>
<Middle>Den Bosch</Middle>
<Long>'s-Hertogenbosch</Long>
</Names>
<Country>NL</Country>
</Station>
</Stations>
There are multiple nodes. I need the value of each node.
I've got the XML from a webpage (http://webservices.ns.nl/ns-api-stations-v2)
Login (--) Pass (--)
Currently i take the XML as a string and parse it to a XDocument.
var xml = XDocument.Parse(xmlString);
foreach (var e in xml.Elements("Long"))
{
var stationName = e.ToString();
}

You can retrieve "Station" nodes using XPath, then get each subsequent child node using more XPath. This example isn't using Linq, which it looks like you possibly are trying to do from your question, but here it is:
XmlDocument xml = new XmlDocument();
xml.Load(xmlStream);
XmlNodeList stations = xml.SelectNodes("//Station");
foreach (XmlNode station in stations)
{
var code = station.SelectSingleNode("Code").InnerXml;
var type = station.SelectSingleNode("Type").InnerXml;
var longName = station.SelectSingleNode("Names/Long").InnerXml;
var blah = "you should get the point by now";
}
NOTE: If your xmlStream variable is a String, rather than a Stream, use xml.LoadXml(xmlStream); for line 2, instead of xml.Load(xmlStream). If this is the case, I would also encourage you to name your variable to be more accurately descriptive of the object you're working with (aka. xmlString).

This will give you all the values of "Long" for every Station element.
var xml = XDocument.Parse(xmlStream);
var longStationNames = xml.Elements("Long").Select(e => e.Value);

Split XML document apart creating multiple output files from repeating elements

I need to take an XML file and create multiple output xml files from the repeating nodes of the input file. The source file "AnimalBatch.xml" looks like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Animals>
<Animal id="1001">
<Quantity>One</Quantity>
<Adjective>Red</Adjective>
<Name>Rooster</Name>
</Animal>
<Animal id="1002">
<Quantity>Two</Quantity>
<Adjective>Stubborn</Adjective>
<Name>Donkeys</Name>
</Animal>
<Animal id="1003">
<Quantity>Three</Quantity>
<Color>Blind</Color>
<Name>Mice</Name>
</Animal>
</Animals>
The program needs to split the repeating "Animal" and produce 3 files named: Animal_1001.xml, Animal_1002.xml, and Animal_1003.xml
Each output file should contain just their respective element (which will be the root). The id attribute from AnimalsBatch.xml will supply the sequence number for the Animal_xxxx.xml filenames. The id attribute does not need to be in the output files.
Animal_1001.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Animal>
<Quantity>One</Quantity>
<Adjective>Red</Adjective>
<Name>Rooster</Name>
</Animal>
Animal_1002.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Animal>
<Quantity>Two</Quantity>
<Adjective>Stubborn</Adjective>
<Name>Donkeys</Name>
</Animal>
Animal_1003.xml>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Animal>
<Quantity>Three</Quantity>
<Adjective>Blind</Adjective>
<Name>Mice</Name>
</Animal>
I want to do this with XmlDocument, since it needs to be able to run on .Net 2.0.
My program looks like this:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string strFileName;
string strSeq;
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.Load("D:\\Rick\\Computer\\XML\\AnimalBatch.xml");
XmlNodeList nl = doc.DocumentElement.SelectNodes("Animal");
foreach (XmlNode n in nl)
{
strSeq = n.Attributes["id"].Value;
XmlDocument outdoc = new XmlDocument();
XmlNode rootnode = outdoc.CreateNode("element", "Animal", "");
outdoc.AppendChild(rootnode); // Put the wrapper element into outdoc
outdoc.ImportNode(n, true); // place the node n into outdoc
outdoc.AppendChild(n); // This statement errors:
// "The node to be inserted is from a different document context."
strFileName = "Animal_" + strSeq + ".xml";
outdoc.Save(Console.Out);
Console.WriteLine();
}
Console.WriteLine("END OF PROGRAM: Press <ENTER>");
Console.ReadLine();
}
I think I have 2 problems.
A) After doing the ImportNode on node n into outdoc, I call outdoc.AppendChild(n) which complains: "The node to be inserted is from a different document context." I do not know if this is a scope issue referencing node n within the ForEach loop - or if I am somehow not using ImportNode() or AppendChild properly. 2nd argument on ImportNode() is set to true, because I want the child elements of Animal (3 fields arbitrarily named Quantity, Adjective, and Name) to end up in the destination file.
B) Second problem is getting the Animal element into outdoc. I'm getting '' but I need ' ' so I can place node n inside it. I think my problem is how I am doing: outdoc.AppendChild(rootnode);
To show the xml, I'm doing: outdoc.Save(Console.Out); I do have the code to save() to an output file - which does work, as long as I can get outdoc assembled properly.
There is a similar question at: Split XML in Multiple XML files, but I don't understand the solution code yet. I think I'm pretty close on this approach, and will appreciate any help you can provide.
I'm going to be doing this same task using XmlReader, since I'm going to need to be able to handle large input files, and I understand that XmlDocument reads the whole thing in and can cause memory issues.

That's a simple method that seems what you are looking for
public void test_xml_split()
{
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.Load("C:\\animals.xml");
XmlDocument newXmlDoc = null;
foreach (XmlNode animalNode in doc.SelectNodes("//Animals/Animal"))
{
newXmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
var targetNode = newXmlDoc.ImportNode(animalNode, true);
newXmlDoc.AppendChild(targetNode);
newXmlDoc.Save(Console.Out);
Console.WriteLine();
}
}

This approach seems to work without using the "var targetnode" statement. It creates an XmlNode object called targetNode from outdoc's "Animal" element in the ForEach loop. I think the main things that were problems in my original code were: A) I was getting nodelist nl incorrectly. And B) I couldn't "Import" node n, I think because it was associated specifically with doc. It had to be created as its own Node.
The problem with the prior proposed solution was the use of the "var" keyword. My program has to assume 2.0 and that came in with v3.0. I like Rogers solution, in that it is concise. For me - I wanted to do each thing as a separate statement.
static void SplitXMLDocument()
{
string strFileName;
string strSeq;
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument(); // The input file
doc.Load("D:\\Rick\\Computer\\XML\\AnimalBatch.xml");
XmlNodeList nl = doc.DocumentElement.SelectNodes("//Animals/Animal");
foreach (XmlNode n in nl)
{
strSeq = n.Attributes["id"].Value; // Animal nodes have an id attribute
XmlDocument outdoc = new XmlDocument(); // Create the outdoc xml document
XmlNode targetNode = outdoc.CreateElement("Animal"); // Create a separate node to hold the Animal element
targetNode = outdoc.ImportNode(n, true); // Bring over that Animal
targetNode.Attributes.RemoveAll(); // Remove the id attribute in <Animal id="1001">
outdoc.ImportNode(targetNode, true); // place the node n into outdoc
outdoc.AppendChild(targetNode); // AppendChild to make it stick
strFileName = "Animal_" + strSeq + ".xml";
outdoc.Save(Console.Out); Console.WriteLine();
outdoc.Save("D:\\Rick\\Computer\\XML\\" + strFileName);
Console.WriteLine();
}
}